Health economics · Applied microeconomics
Postdoctoral Research Fellow at STICERD, LSE
Joint research programme with UC Berkeley
About
I am a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at STICERD at the London School of Economics, working in a joint research programme with UC Berkeley. I completed my PhD in Economics at LSE in 2026.
My work uses linked administrative health and socioeconomic data to study health inequality, chronic disease, cancer outcomes, mental health, and the geography of health. I am particularly interested in translating careful measurement and applied microeconometrics into evidence that is useful for policy.
Before the PhD, I worked at Deloitte Access Economics in Australia, delivering economic analysis for government, business, and not-for-profit clients.
Selected research
All researchHow does spatial aggregation change what income–health gradients measure? Dutch administrative data reveal distinct individual and neighbourhood channels—and unequal exposure to local conditions.
A mortality-weighted measure of chronic disease shows that half of the old-age difference in disease burden across the income distribution is already present by age 40, decades before the corresponding mortality differences emerge.
Previously circulated as The Chronic Disease Index: Analyzing Health Inequalities Over the Lifecycle.
Links population-wide Dutch records to fine-grained measures of pollution, food environments, green space, walkability, and healthcare access.
A multidisciplinary study linking Dutch cancer-registry data with treatment, income, and mortality records to examine socioeconomic differences in cancer incidence, stage at diagnosis, treatment, and survival.
Using population-wide Dutch administrative data, this project measures mental-health inequality and studies when income gaps emerge and how mental-health shocks affect earnings and employment.
Contact
I am based in London and work with collaborators at LSE, UC Berkeley, and across health and policy research.
w.d.parker@lse.ac.uk